My Flickriver

I am Sonia, a 38 year old French Canadian from Québec (Canada), single mother of 2 [fully grown] kids, who’s recently turned her life around and decided to embrace a healthy lifestyle and clean-up her diet quite a bit.

My whole life I have struggled with my weight, and many times I have fallen victim to the diet syndrome. I would starve myself and / or eat “rabbit” food for months. Sure, I would lose the weight, but it would only be a matter of time before I gained it all back, because I never knew how to feed my body properly and stay healthy.

Then, about 2 years ago, as a new year’s resolution, I decided that I wanted to shed some [ahem 50-60] pounds and get back into shape. I had quit smoking 2 years prior, then the year after I had dramatically lowered my alcohol consumption, going down from several drinks a day to drinking only on the week-ends. Eventually, the need to drink alcohol lessened and I now will only indulge in the occasional drink.

My official resolution that year had been to be active for a minimum of 30 minutes a day, at least 6 days out of the week. I invested in a [don’t get me started, gosh I hate that stupid machine] elliptical trainer and bought myself a Wii Fit. I was extra motivated and the half hour a day soon became an hour, then an hour and a half. The pounds would come off and I would feel so much better, so energized, so pumped! I was looking forward to my exercise sessions, but I soon felt like I needed more, I needed a tangible goal… That’s when I started running and set a goal to run 10km at the Marathon de Montréal in September of 2010. Well, not only did I achieve that, I surpassed it! I actually ran a half-marathon, which I completed in 2 hours, 1 minute and 40 seconds.

For sure you must think that I like exercising! Well, the truth is, I don’t. I don’t always enjoy it, but I know just how good it is for me. And it does make me feel so much better about myself, plus, it feels good to be in shape.

During all that time, slowly but surely, a change started to operate in me. I, the girl who used to smoke, drink, love junk food so much and considered herself as a hopeless carnivore, eventually came to realize that eating clean, healthy food didn’t have to be complicated or boring and didn’t mean that I had to sacrifice taste either. Heck, I don’t even have to sacrifice the yummyness factor. Seriously! I now absolutely LOVE everything I eat and look forward to every single meal. The best part is, I don’t have to feel guilty about it!

To help me stay on track and keep a record of recipes I’d created and meals I’d eaten, I eventually created a blog: Food Obsessed. What started as a “personal” online food diary soon became a real passion for me, and despite being extremely busy with work, commuting to and from work [again, don’t get me started…] and exercising, it’s now become a very important part of my life. It inspires me and helps me expand my boundaries and make tons of new discoveries, through sharing recipes and ideas with others just like me.

You are more than welcome to join me, if you will, on this journey to a fit and healthy me. Feel free to flip through the pages of my food diary and, by all means, leave your comments and feedback!

Intrigued by your recipes I read your ‘about this blog’ biography. Now I am subscribing…my mother is French Canadian too (me? I am just a half bred…other half being Polish/American). The pictures made my mouth water (even after eating). I can’t wait to browse some more! Maybe I will even open a blog of my own…dedicated to wonderful mouthwatering recipes I have acquired after almost 20 years in Turkey. Thanks. Happy cooking.

I found your site through a recipe posting on Tastespotting.com (congrats by the way) and I really enjoy your website. I’m interested in quinoa although I’ve never had it because i wasn’t sure what to do with it. I’ll definitely be trying one of your recipes this weekend. Great job and looking forward to following you.